Gender Pay Equality Becomes Issue In Governor's Race

2 years ago

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WTVN) -- The issue of gender pay inequality has come up in the race for Ohio governor.

Democrat Ed FitzGerald fired the first shot with a news release from his campaign saying the issue hurts middle class families. He says it's an issue he'll address if elected as governor.

We asked the Cuyahoga County Executive's office and Ohio Governor's office for a roster of their staff along with their hourly wages. A spreadsheet provided by FitzGerald's office showed 16 men and 8 women, but omitted FitzGerald himself. We added him back in because the governor's office included Governor John Kasich in their roster, which included 37 women and 27 men.

The average pay for women in FitzGerald's office was $51.01 per hour while men made an average of $58.03. That's a gap of $7.02 per hour.

In Kasich's office, men made an average of $35.81 per hour compared to the female staffers who were paid an average hourly wage of $29.32. That's a difference of $6.49 per hour.

"FitzGerald comes out campaigning on something and then when reality comes he has the worst record in the state and he's a complete hypocrite on it," said Ohio Republican Party spokesman Chris Schrimpf.

FitzGerald disputes the numbers from the governor's office.

"They did their own analysis that not shockingly was extremely skewed and inaccurate and that's what they're trying to push out there now," he said. "Anybody that actually impartially looks at the numbers, their pay equity gap is higher than what ours is."